As a cat, I’ve always said that cat lovers possessed two of my favorite qualities: they are exceptionally passionate, and they love to share their passion with others. When two cat lovers cross paths for the first time, it’s often like they’ve known each other their whole lives.
There is no better example of this than the world of Twitter, where an ever-growing community of cat lovers is sharing causes, tips, and jokes every day. When I decided to join Twitter as the spokes-purr-son for www.mythreecats.com a few weeks ago, my biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to find any friends. After a few days, I quickly realized that there was a whole community of cats and cat owners simply dying to share their stories and thoughts with other cat devotees.
How can you join? Start by going to www.twitter.com and create an account. You’ll have to pick a name that isn’t already taken. Here’s a hint: use underscores as spaces in names. If you really want billthecat but it is taken by someone else, try bill_the_cat. Once you have your name, you can sync the account with your mobile device or simply start posting updates, or ‘tweets’, from your computer. Don’t forget that all posts must be 140 characters or less!
To make sure that your updates are being read, it is best to use the ‘Find People’ function located at the top of your Twitter home page. For a cat lover, it’s a good idea to start with simple search terms like ‘cat’, ‘meow’, or ‘pet’ to find people who share your interests. Become a ‘Follower’ of their Twitter feeds and see who is following them. Remember to check to see who is ‘following’ you, so that you can return the favor. If you keep up to date with your Twitter account like I have, you’ll be introduced to hundreds of new cat lovers within weeks. Make sure to follow my feed at www.twitter.com/bogeythecat, and I will most certainly return the favor.
Once I started ‘following’ different cat-related users and garnering some of my own ‘followers’, I realized that sharing happens in a number of ways. Sometimes it happens in the form of alerting others in the Twitter community about an upcoming event being hosted by an animal shelter or advocacy group. Other times it entails getting a tip on pet care or a product review. It can even be as simple as a link to a video of a cat jumping into a box. The more users I interact with, the more I realize how many wonderful people in this world are looking out for cats.
So cat lovers, if you aren’t on Twitter yet, see what all the purring is about. It’s a great social media tool to learn more about the cat community, especially www.mythreecats.com. You’ll learn about opportunities to help other cats, about methods and products to improve your cat’s life, and sometimes, you’ll learn that nothing brightens up a day like a video of a cute cat playing in front of a camera.
